Metro Atlanta police chiefs working together after increase in violence among teens, children

Dave Huddleston
·2 min read
14

Channel 2 Action News got more details on what metro Atlanta police departments are doing to try and stop the spike in recent youth violence.

Channel 2′s Dave Huddleston spoke with the new task force of crime fighters and got exclusive access to Atlanta’s police chief. The chief said that since the horrible shooting that killed a 12-year-old and now a 15-year-old, he’s been talking with other local police chiefs on how they can stop the violence.

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“If there is going to be a solution with 12 and 13 and 14-year-olds with guns, then that is a regional approach,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said.

Schierbaum told Huddleston in this one-on-one interview that he is now in direct communication with neighboring police chiefs to find those responsible and the affiliated gangs that led to the death of two children on Thanksgiving weekend.

“I’ve been in conversations since Saturday with neighboring chiefs over the connections these young individuals had in their jurisdiction and the contact they had with those police agencies,” he said.

Those agencies are South Fulton, East Point, Cobb and DeKalb counties.

“We’re going to attack it at the top to go after those that are operating these gangs,” Schierbaum said.

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Cobb County’s Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer said he is supporting the effort.

“Working together on a regular basis is the only way we can fight this,” VanHoozer said. “We are very much communicating about these ideas that they very much utilize in Atlanta, and that we can use here.”

Atlanta’s chief said they’re also working with an even bigger task force.

“We work out of this building with about six different law enforcement agencies federal state county, we have a strong support with the sheriff of Fulton County, the state attorney with the state of Georgia, the GBI and ATF,” Schierbaum said.

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